This ticket schedule item is currently under review by several dispatch teams. Installations have not yet responded with a quote.In April 2006, Boeing was awarded $67.6M fixed-price contract for the remanufacture of several existing U.S. AH-64As to the AH-64D configuration; between May 2009 and July 2011, a further five contracts were issued to remanufacture batches of AH-64As to the upgraded D variant. Since 2008, operation of older AH-64A has been recommended to undertake modernization programs to become AH-64Ds, given Boeing& U.S. Army plans to terminate support for the A-variants in the near future. Apache effectiveness against ground forces has been bolstered by the addition of the AGM-114N – a Hellfire missile fitted w/ thermobaric warhead, approved for full production in 2005.

McDonnell Douglas studied an improved AH-64B design w/ updated cockpit, & other upgrades in the mid-1980s. In 1988, funding was approved for a multi-stage upgrade program to improve sensor and weapon avionics systems and incorporate some digital systems. However, rapidly improving technology led to the upgrade program being canceled in favor of more ambitious changes. Development of the more advanced AH-64D Apache Longbow was approved by the Defense Acquisition Board in August 1990. AH-64D prototype testing ended in April 1995. During the testing, six AH-64D helicopters were pitted against a numerically superior group of AH-64A helicopters & results demonstrated that AH-64D has a seven times increase in survivability and four times increase in lethality compared to the AH-64A.

Full-scale production of the Apache Longbow was approved in October 1995 w/ $1.9-billion five-year contract signed in August 1996 to upgrade & rebuild 232 existing AH-64A Apaches. The first production AH-64D flew in March 1997 & cost of AH-64D program totaled $11bn through 2007. Agusta Westland had been producing Apache components for the international market, but since 2004, Korea Aerospace Industries has been the sole manufacturer of the Apache's fuselage. Prior to this, fuselage production was handled by Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical during the 1980s & ‘90s but legal dispute between Teledyne Ryan and Boeing broke out over the eventual transfer of fuselage production.